Council Update – June 13, 2017

Last night at Council the majority of time was spent discussing the joint motion regarding the Highland Gate Development put forward by Councillor Gaertner and myself. In the rather lengthy discussion of the motion, a number of members made note of what a great job the developer is doing in terms of accommodations and working with the Town and the residents in regards to a construction mitigation plan. However, as I explained, the focus of the motion is not what the developer is going to do or whether they are going above and beyond, the point of the motion is to know what Town staff will be doing to make sure that what is being promised will be happening.. How will the Town be monitoring the construction; how will the Town be enforcing the policies within the mitigation plan.
As I stated at the table I believe it is Council’s obligation to ensure that the construction will adhere to the plan as outlined. Given that this is the first development of its kind in Aurora – a re-development of a golf course within a stable/existing neighbourhood – Council needs to make sure that our residents and community as a whole will be disrupted as little as possible. A member put forward an amendment to the motion, to remove the wording “before any agreement is signed”, however this amendment failed 6-3 against. After subsequent discussion, Council voted unanimously in favour of the motion.
The discussion of the motion is quite long, as members spoke at length about it. Here is the the discussion in its entirety…